Dr. Kristin Rabosky
Education
Contact Information
Room 324
Teaching Philosophy & Focus
At WSU, my two main teaching goals are to convey the fundamental material necessary while cultivating the soft skills needed for students to thrive after graduation.
Courses Taught
Lower Division
Upper Division
PHYS 3410 - Electronics
PHYS 4410 - Materials Characterization
PHYS 4830 – Independent Readings
SCIE 5920 – Advanced Physics Lab for Teachers
Search Catalog For Course Details
Research Areas of Interest
My materials research has covered a wide variety of topics, from depositing and characterizing thin film materials for electronic devices, completing scanning electron microscopy (SEM) on geological and biological samples, and using spectroscopy to study the optical properties of materials.
The materials labs at WSU have deposition capabilities, including magnetron sputtering, carbon coating, and annealing furnaces. The characterization tools include SEM with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and cathodoluminescence, atomic force microscopy, ellipsometry, surface profilometry, and UV-VIS spectroscopy.
In addition to more traditional materials science research, I have:
- Redesigned our upper-division lab program as course-based undergraduate research experiences and project-based learning opportunities.
- Created an innovative introductory physics lab on diffraction and interference using thin film coatings.
- Co-taught Advanced Physics Lab for Teachers, which serves to fulfill physics endorsement needs for high school physics teachers and provides continuing education experience.
- Provided several Research Experiences for Teachers as another avenue to support high school teachers' continuing education.
Specific Projects
A representative sample of projects my students have worked on includes:
- Thin film selective absorber development for solar water heating
- Making perovskite solar cells
- Mapping and imaging zircon crystals for geologic dating
- Imaging thin film coatings for bowling balls
- Imaging preserved plant specimens
- Design and implementation of percolation bingo kits for junior high science classes
- Determining the percolation threshold of very thin metals
- Building an in-situ optical color filter wheel for a panchromatic cathodoluminescence spectrometer
- Building and using handheld particle detectors
Awards
- Presidential Teaching Excellence Award, WSU 2023
- Exemplary Interdisciplinary Collaboration Award, WSU 2022
- Gwen Williams Prize for Research, WSU, 2022
- Gwen Williams Prize for Research, WSU, 2018
- Faculty Sustainability Research Award for Applied Scholarship, WSU 2017
Representative Publications
- K. G. Rabosky, J. C. Armstrong, A. Johnston, "A CURE (Course Based Undergraduate Research) for Advanced Physics Lab", The Physics Teacher, vol. 63, 2025 (p. 57-59)
- K. Rabosky, C. Inglefield, K. Spirito, "Interference and Diffraction in Modern Technology: A New Approach for an Introductory Physics Laboratory", 2020, The Physics Teacher
- B. Burnett, C. Inglefield, K. Rabosky, "A Model for Materials Science in Physics and Chemistry Curricula and Research at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution", MRS Advances (2017), pp. 1-10
- K. Kiriluk Rabosky, "Beyond Silicon: Alternative Photovoltaic Technologies", IEEE Technologies for Sustainability (SusTech) Conference Proceedings (2015), 131 (Invited)
- K. G. Kiriluk, J. D. Fields, B. J. Simonds, Y. P. Pai, P. L. Miller, T. Su, B. Yan, J. Yang, S. Guha, A. Madan, S. E. Shaheen, P. C. Taylor, and R. T. Collins "Highly Efficient Charge Transfer in Nanocrystalline Si:H Solar Cells", Appl. Phys. Lett. 102, 133101 (2013), Cover of Issue
